Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-05-28
THE MAMMOTH TUN OF ToLEeo
A Receptacle FOR Thirty-six Thousand
Gallons pf tV:ua

THE MAMMOTH TUN OF TOLEDO
A Receptacle FOR Thirty-Six Thousand
Gallons of Wine.
Says Toledo letter to the New York
Times Who has not heard of the Heidel-
berg tun? Posterity NAV never know the
extent OF the vast army of Germans. and
Of continental people generally, who, in
quaifing their modest gallons, after the alb
stem1ous fashion Of some foreign nations,
have slowly but none the less surely lost
their grip upon the reasoning faculties, and
died IN misery, on account of their ina
billty TO accurately determine the number
OF guips contained in the Heidelberg tun.
Some one-possibly Knight of Labor
who hasn't been resident long enough to
possess the elective franchise. and whose
taste runs TO whIsky-may inquire how the
capacity of the Heidelberg tun in gulps
should be SO difficult Of solution Such
person must, of course, be aware that the
SAID tun had capacity of fifty thousand
gallons, more or less. Had ii contained
exactly fifty thousand gallons the ioy of
the exuitant German would have been
boundless. It was the more or less ~ that
staggered him and sent so many 10 grass
in premature way.
NO such tate awaits the man who looks
upon anu asks queSuonS ABOUT the Toledo
tun. The latter was not built in the six
tenth century ike its predecessor, and its
constructors took good care to fiud out ex-
actly how much liquid it would hold be-
fore curious public was turned loose
upon it. Everybody in Toledo has seen the
Toledo tun. No visitor is allowed to escape
without looking at it. And it is situated
at such distance from the various rail
road stations that no visitor whose time is
not ample-to say nothing about his ca
pacity-ever forgets the visit or his more
or less desperate eXertions 10 catch his
train.
The Heidelberg tun is the most ancient
of course; it was built in the sixteenth
century. But at that period, as Mr. Trow-
bridge very pertinently remarks, there was
no necessity for anything of the sort at To-
ledo. And the visitor insensibly feels that
if such a necessity had existed Toledo
would have been heard from. Besides.
although the Heidelberg tun holds over
fifty thousand gallons, more or less. and is
covered with carvings of a curious and
ingenious character, it is not properly a
tnn; 1t does not possess the glorious pro-
portions of the Toledo tun, which is ex-
actly the counterpart, except in size. of
perfectly constructed eask. Then, again.
the Heidelberg tun has not been full for
over two hundred years. whereas the To-
ledo tun is always full, and has been since
the beginning OF the present year. When
the statement is made that the Toledo
tun is always full the workmen employed
by MIR. Lepk look at it with sorrowful
gaze and compare its condition with their
| own. The Toledo tun has an unbroken
| record. 1t celebrated New Years Day in
a condition of fullness, and has been full
ever since. When Toledo man is asked
hNFs. ~ ~ l. l. I.
self and wants to escape with a light SEN
tence by appealing to the patriotism of the
justice he admits that he was engaged in
desperate attempt 10 emulate the example.
OF the Toledo tun.
Work was begun on the tun in 1888, but
the solid American oak of which il was
built was drying in kiln for six years
prior to that. Its solid oaken slaves are
twenty-one feet long and six inches square
In the rough six of them formed load for
| two-horse team. With the utmost nicely
| they were put in place, until as a whole
they measured over sixty feet in circum-
| ference. Through the center of the tun,
where it curves outward in huge swell, il
! measures twenty-one feet. 1t contains &c.
900 gallons of dry wine. To withstand the
enormous pressure of this bulk three iron
| rods are carried from end to end where
| they are rlveted in oaken beams of great
size and strength. The hoops are of iron.
There are fourteen of them and they weigh
three tons. Each hoop is six inches broad
| and about third of an inch in thickness.
They are well groomed hoops and shine as
II III constant contact with an emery-wheel
But everything about the great tub betokens
the great care that is taken of it. lis oaken
| surface is polished to such a degree that
the sun loves to creep in through the
prson-like windows and dance upon its
shining bulk. The huge brass spigot gilt
tiers like gold fresh from the coiner's hand.
The oaken platform that faces the tremen-
dous head, and the oaken stairway that
winds around the base and enables the
visitor to look down upon the man.
moth, glisten under frequent coats of
ysrnish. A blow upon its iron-ribbed
BODY makes no impression unless the
ear be placed close TO the wood then the
sound is like the last gasp of a thunder
chap. Days and days were occupied in
filling II with catawba, made from grapes
| that grow on islands in Putin bay, where
Commodore Perry taught John Bull
| lesson some years ago. And when the tun
| was full, when $4,000 gallons of wine had
been poured into the vast interior, there
was much rejoicing in the immediate
vicinity, and all who witnessed the COM
pletion of the process felt in duty bound to
N-4A n W tlic JSsILti Vi Nut O4eiO tull, ana
| TO do so in such unstinted measure that the
| occasion is likely never to be forgotten by
those who participated.
How much the tun weighs / am unable
to tell but its contents weigh 125 tons of
2,240 pounds each, allowing eight pounds
to the gallon. Its only rival, the Heidel-
berg tun, is no longer in condition to hold
$4,000 gallons, or one gallon. Age has in
| creased its value as curiosity, but has i'm
paired a usefulness that was only for a
short time tested to its full extent 1t has
contained no wine for a long time, and was
drank from for the last time when Emperor
William of Germany was crowned On
that occasion a cask of wine was placed in
the ancient tun in such a position that its
contents could be drawn through the spigot
of the monster cask. So as it stands to-
day, the Toledo tun is, from a commercial
standpoint, the largest tun in the world,
and il support Of this statement Toledo is
willing to bank its last dollar.